The Hindu Business Line : Coverage of most kharif crops down

New Delhi, June 26 Halting progress of the south-west monsoon, which has recorded a 54 per cent seasonal deficiency so far, has led to poor sowing in most kharif crops.

The Agriculture Ministry’s Crop Weather Watch Report, released here on Friday, shows a drop in acreages under paddy, coarse grains (especially bajra ), oilseeds (groundnut, soyabean and sesamum), sugarcane and jute.

Better in Karnataka

On the other hand, farmers have planted more area under cotton, maize and pulses compared with what they had planted last year at this point of time.

One reason for this has been the relatively better rains in Karnataka.

Farmers in Karnataka have so far sown more area under practically every crop: Maize (5.16 lakh hectares against 3.19 lakh hectares), jowar (1.49 versus 1.12), bajra (0.83 versus 0.26), cotton (1.59 versus 0.96), groundnut (1.09 versus 0.42), soyabean (1.51 versus 1.05), sunflower (1.20 versus 0.74), sesamum (0.42 versus 0.31), arhar (0.99 versus 0.26), urad (0.34 versus 0.14) and moong (1.72 versus 0.64).

Irrigated belt

The higher coverage in Karnataka has helped partially offset the poor progress of sowing in all other States (barring cotton, where growers in the irrigated belt of Punjab, Haryana and North Rajasthan have brought in more area under the crop).

Agriculture Ministry officials say that the overall lower acreages this time is not a cause for alarm yet.

“The sowing window for most kharif crops is from mid-June to mid-July, with transplanting of paddy in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh continuing well up to July-end. While the June rains have no doubt been bad, a recovery in July would be good enough to make-up for the present low coverage,” they added.

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Deficient rainfall delays kharif crops sowing

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